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Striker
Romelu Lukaku |
Striker Romelu Lukaku is closing in on a loan move to Fulham, according to Goal.com.
The west London rivals are in advanced talks on a deal that would take Lukaku across the capital on a season-long loan.
Martin Jol has sanctioned a move for the Belgian teenager after Chelsea made it clear it was looking to offload, either on loan or permanent deals, some of the fringe players of its first-team squad.
Chelsea has no problem in allowing Lukaku, 19, to move to Craven Cottage as long as he is guaranteed the opportunity to play more games than he would at Stamford Bridge.
Lukaku has spoken of his frustration at the lack of first-team chances during a disappointing debut season at Chelsea following his 18 million pound transfer last summer from Anderlecht.
He said he was "really angry" that he started only a single Premier League match and claimed that he was treated poorly by former manager Andre Villas-Boas.
Despite the departures of Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou this summer and Nicolas Anelka in January, Lukaku remains a long way behind Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge in the pecking order.
Chelsea and Fulham have now agreed the basic terms of a loan deal, which would be broadly similar to Gael Kakuta's spell at Craven Cottage in the second half of the 2010-11 season, when the young Frenchman's wages were equally shared between the two clubs.
If the deal is completed, Lukaku will become Fulham's third forward signing of the transfer window.
The west Londoners have already signed Mladen Petric and Hugo Rodallega on frees, from Hamburg and Wigan Athletic respectively, but sold Andy Johnson to QPR and lost out to Reading in their bid to sign Russian Pavel Pogrebnyak, their loan star of last season.